Kitsap Harvest

Our mission is to create a sustainable and community-based system of moving local produce to food banks in order to alleviate both food waste and food insecurity in the county. The USDA states that 40% of food in America and 50% of produce, worth $161 billion, gets discarded. Astonishingly however, 50 million Americans are food insecure. These polarized issues need to be bridged in order to have a healthier and sustainable future. In Kitsap County 30% of adults are food insecure, and 35% of children need free or reduced lunches. Visits to food banks have increased 70% since 2006. Food banks are serving residents a year. Kitsap Harvest, a program of Rotary First’s Harvest Against Hunger, is working to increase local, fresh food access and creating education and awareness through broad community interactions, building relationships with other food security networks, to establish coordination rather than duplication. I am an AmeriCorps VISTA member working with the Kitsap Public Health District in conjunction with Harvest Against Hunger, a program under Seattle’s Rotary First Harvest (RFH). RFH is a non-profit committed to the food recovery efforts throughout Washington State. The Kitsap Harvest program kicked off April 2016 with the arrival of the first AmeriCorps member who served a year building program awareness with local farmers. With a short service gap, the year 2 VISTA is building a platform to create better community access to information, and participation in one of the many avenues of volunteering such as growing food, helping pick food, move food and helping share information about other area programs. We understand how hard it is to promote yourself when doing good for the community but lack the people power for advertising, public relations, AND doing the job you do for the community! This is a three year VISTA program, overseen by the Rotary First Harvest Against Hunger who places VISTAs at sites identified as “in need of hunger relief.” It is their mission to develop and coordinate a food recovery program within the community. Goals of Kitsap Harvest: 1. Establish a gleaning program in coordination with WSU, structured primarily by community stakeholders which utilizes a strong and self-sustained volunteer assembly and encompasses previous food recovery efforts. Work with and create lasting communication among farmers, local growers, food banks, and volunteers in order to strengthen gleaning and harvesting activities. Promote and organize gleaning events; continue to record and cultivate data with the purpose of preparing and improving outcome. How you can help: Kitsap Harvest needs volunteers! In order for this to be community sustained, we need farmers and gardeners willing to donate their land, time, and produce; volunteers to harvest in the fields, move produce to food banks, donate their resources, and to become area leads for north, central, and south Kitsap. I am an AmeriCorps VISTA member working with the Kitsap Public Health District in conjunction with Harvest Against Hunger, a program under Seattle’s Rotary First Harvest (RFH). RFH is a non-profit committed to the food recovery efforts throughout Washington State.